Books: A Second Look

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Another woman who was re-established as a significant writer this year is Jane Bowles (wife of Author-Composer Paul Bowles). In her Collected Works, the most prominent entry is Two Serious Ladies, which was first published in 1943 and highly praised before fading from public attention. It is a deceptively simple novel of two women trying to change their way of life. One, a sheltered spinster, seeks salvation by becoming a prostitute and does manage to achieve a heightened sense of herself. The other woman sets off to find sin and excitement and discovers in stead spiritual narcosis and boredom. Most Bowles characters seem to suffer from a total lack of motivation; they must be seen and interpreted solely in their relation to one another. The poker-faced prose is distinguished by a dry irony and deadpan humor that make Jane Bowles a kind of Buster Keaton of literature.

THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION RECONSIDERED by Richard B. Morris. 178 pages. Harper & Row. $5.

Columbia University's Richard Morris disputes the view of a good many historians that the American Revolution was merely a colonial struggle for independence. Morris sees the events of 1776-1783 as not only ending England's hegemony but also giving birth to a moral, social and intellectual revolution that is still continuing. "From its inception," Morris writes, "the American Revolution was pitched on a moral plane. The patriots were concerned not only about mankind's good opinion, but, as Tom Paine felicitously phrased it, believed it to be in their power 'to make a world happy.' " Morris sees the willingness of contemporary Americans to shoulder global responsibilities as an outgrowth of that revolutionary vision. The greatest lesson of the Revolution, he says, is a tolerance for change: "To that radically reshaped world in which we live, the message of the American Revolution is as relevant as its meaning is profound."

THE FALL OF JAPAN by William Craig. 368 pages. Dial. $6.50.

With Nagasaki flattened by an A-bomb (code-named "Fat Man"), Emperor Hirohito gathered his ministers in an underground shelter and asked them to sue for peace. Such intervention by the Emperor was extraordinary, and, since Hirohito was believed to be divine, his request was also presumably a commandment from heaven. But his military advisers resisted surrender; a group of fanatic staff officers made a futile attempt to seize the palace and overthrow the government when they learned of Hirohito's decision. These and other chaotic events leading up to Imperial Japan's capitulation are arranged with precision in The Fall of Japan. Author Craig, a former Manhattan adman, unfolds the story in the you-are-here fashion of popular history. Yet his documentation and use of original sources reflect first-rate scholarship. Among other topics, Craig traces the origins of the kamikaze suicide squadrons, General Curtis LeMay's plans for a low-altitude fire-bomb attack on Tokyo, and the success of Japanese intelligence forces in learning the details of the U.S. plan to invade the home islands.

ON THE YARD by Malcolm Braly 344 pages. Little, Brown. $5.95.